Posted by Erin
on
10 December 2010
The certified organic We Love New York collection from Honoré des Prés is one of the best surprises of 2010. Like many others, I had issues with the line’s debut scents, launched in 2008 and developed by perfumer Olivia Giacobetti.1 My favorite of the first five was Sexy Angelic, a tribute to the calisson, specialty of Aix-en-Provence and possibly the world’s most divine confection. Sexy Angelic opens with a fresh, mouthwatering cloud of marzipan and crystallized melon… and then, swiftly, nothing. Within a minute or two, the top notes have completely dissipated, leaving behind a very faintly minty, showered-skin smell that lasts for approximately six more minutes. Even for all-natural eaux and in the context of Giacobetti’s ethereal Iunx waters, four of the original Honoré scents set new records for brevity. Unfortunately, the sole enduring scent, Chaman’s Party, seems to feature enough tulsi (aka holy basil) to remind me of those ayurvedic teas served at spas where you are instructed to always apply facial moisturizer with a counter clockwise motion. (Don’t let me discourage you from sampling it, though. It was a winner for Robin.) The experience seemed too mixed for 100 ml at $145, so with mild disappointment, I mentally filed the line away as one not likely to inspire a purchase.
But then, with the announcement of the We Love New York trio in March, I had to consider re-filing. From the note lists, which seemed to promise bolder, longer-lasting fragrances, to the painfully cute, coffee-themed packaging: everything about I Love Les Carottes, Love Coco and Vamp à NY caught the attention of wired perfumanity…
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Posted by Robin
on
6 May 2010
Sometimes it’s best to start at the end: L’Artisan Parfumeur’s new Nuit de Tubéreuse is a stunning perfume. Perfumer Bertand Duchaufour is reportedly not exactly the house nose at L’Artisan, and for that matter, he developed quite a few fragrances for the house before he was officially hired in 2008, but the L’Artisan line feels different after the last three major releases under his direction — Havana Vanille, Al Oudh, and now Nuit de Tubéreuse — and to me at least, different in a good way, although L’Artisan has long been one of my favorite perfume houses. There has been much discussion recently about whether or not niche is still a meaningful term, and of course one could argue that in terms of size and distribution, L’Artisan Parfumeur is not a niche firm anyway. Whatever: Nuit de Tubéreuse is an unusual and impressive take on tuberose, and it cheers me no end to know that there are still companies out there launching perfumes like this. Niche or not niche, I don’t care — Nuit de Tubéreuse is the exactly the sort of perfume that keeps me blogging.
All of that said, I’m not at all sure that I like it, and I put off this review so that I might wear it enough to make up my mind. I still haven’t made up my mind. It’s going in the purgatory basket. But let’s get back to the beginning…
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Posted by Robin
on
1 April 2010
I like Prada. Not because of the fashion — regular readers here know I don’t know a thing about fashion — but because of the perfumes, which for the most part (I’m ignoring Prada Tendré) have eschewed the aim-for-the-lowest-common-denominator approach of your average mainstream designer perfume brand. The Prada perfumes aren’t wacky or outré, and they’re not necessarily the sort of thing that will please your jaded, niche-snob perfumista, but they’re well-crafted, and they strike me as perfumes made by people who care about the product as much as they care about making money. I’m as jaded as anybody, but I’m entirely willing to believe perfumer Daniela Andrier when she says Prada gives her more money to work with than other brands.1
It is precisely because I like Prada so much that last year’s Infusion de Fleur d’Oranger was such a disappointment. It was the first in a new series of limited editions, the Ephemeral Infusions.2 According to Andrier, the “idea of Infusion is almost as an imprint of the chosen material in water, a kind of watercolor fragrance reworked with colorful pastel crayon”3 — doesn’t that sound delightful? And it worked out perfectly, for me anyway, in the original that preceded the series, Prada Infusion d’Iris, and also in Prada’s recent L’Eau Ambrée, which was not part of the series but which took a very similar approach…
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Posted by Angela
on
29 March 2010
Lately I’ve been buying tuberose every few weeks to keep in a crooked, blown glass vase on my mantel. The stems are tall and plain, and the flowers look like plump stock or jagged-edged snapdragons. Sometimes the blooms even brown and tumble to the hearth when the night is too cold. But, oh, the scent. Orchids can keep the blue ribbon for beguiling appearance. Tuberose has it all tied up for fragrance.
I want to wear that smell on my skin, but I’ve had a heck of a time finding a tuberose perfume that suits me. I love the smell of Piguet Fracas, but on me it comes off like a girl scout wearing Versace. Serge Lutens Tubéreuse Criminelle is glamour in a silver cocktail glass, but too icy. Comme des Garçons + Daphne Guinness Daphne presents tuberose wrapped in enough incense and bitter orange that I love it, but I want more tuberose. Estée Lauder Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia is too Ladies Who Lunch. (I haven’t yet given Frédéric Malle Carnal Flower a fair try.) So when a sample of Histoires de Parfums Tubéreuse 3 L’Animale Eau de Parfum showed up in my mailbox, I yanked up my sleeve and spritzed it on…
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Posted by Robin
on
16 February 2010
Kim Kardashian, in case you didn’t know, is a “TV star, entrepreneur, model, actress, and trendsetter”, in addition to being “one of the world’s most idolized women”. So says Sephora, where Kardashian’s eponymous debut fragrance recently launched and is reportedly a top seller.
Kardashian said she wanted “something rich and creamy and sexy, but still youthful”;1 what she got was a big white floral, very similar to the recent Mariah Carey Forever, which of course was very similar to Marc Jacobs for women. Kardashian’s effort, developed by perfumer Claude Dir, is lusher than Forever, and heavier on the tuberose…
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